A Colaba gallery, which recently transformed into a press, has become the go-to space for recreating a historic moment in Indian art

When gallerist Mortimer Chatterjee dropped a line to art historian and patron Pheroza Godrej, inviting her to their ongoing show, The Arthur Bunder Press, Colaba, he mentioned that the template of the gallery’s recent show is borrowed from the seminal Xal Praxis — a printmaking movement,which thrived in the early 1990s. “We have positioned the workshop with Xal Praxis as our inspiration — bringing exciting contemporary artists to a broad audience with accessible price points,” shares Chatterjee, one half of the eponymous gallery, Chatterjee & Lal.

.

Chatterjee’s message, indeed, piqued Godrej’s interest. She was, after all, involved in the making of the Xal Praxis, an unusual project she set up along with veteran artist Akbar Padamsee, psychotherapist Udayan Patel, and art patron Ajay Lakhanpal. “Akbar, whose idea it was, travelled across the country to identify and commission print works and lithographs to artists such as Krishna Reddy, Jean Bhownagry, Anjana Mehra, Anupam Sud, Manjit Bawa, Jai and Moti Zharotia, and Jyoti Bhatt. Ajay put forward the money, while Udayan and I served as advisors,” recalls Godrej, whose Cymroza Art Gallery in Breach Candy served as the venue for the print show. “Considering these portfolios were sold at Rs 20,000 each, they certainly were great value for money given the pool of talent that created them. We had two editions of Xal Praxis; one between 1990-1992, and the other between 1994-1995.”

However, unlike the Xal Praxis, where it was left for the artist to create a work independently, “here, the idea was to turn the gallery into a press, or an artist’s studio and explore different printmaking processes together while creating work,” says artist Gieve Patel, who has participated in both the Xal Praxis show as well as in the current exhibition, for which he has etched a male and female head on paper. “But back then, I had created image clouds with the help of professor Dhumal’s press in Baroda.”

Currently, the Colaba space resembles the site of a workshop. “We have been ideating for a while with Bangalore-based artist Amshu Chukki and master printmaker Jayasimha C (who runs Prati, the Atelier, which has facilitated the workshop). We want to increase our engagement with events, beyond simple exhibitions; we are actively looking to undertake workshops,” says Chatterjee. “The show is an open studio, which will turn into a more orthodox exhibition once the final edition prints are ready. We expect two portfolios, each with one print by each artist [so 11 in total in each].”

The gallery was keen to have a cross generational group — from Gieve Patel to Madhu Das, and include artists who are not trained printmakers such as Minam Apang, Mark Prime, Gagan Singh and Nityan Unnikrishnan. Chatterjee points out, “Highlights from the exhibition include works by senior artists Gieve Patel and Madhav Imartey, drypoint prints by Madhu Das and Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, woodblock prints by Ratna Gupta and lithographs by Areez Katki.

Printmaker by training, Rupali Patil’s prints express her ease with the medium of printing.” At a time, when conceptual art has interested the arbiters of tastes, it’s refreshing to revisit the old-school printmaking in a contemporary art space.